dustcommie [none/use name]

I wonder how many people/“libs” will end up taking these moments to think about what even is “democracy” and “freedom” (rather than some vague vibe based ideas) means after reading something like that…

Is there an obvious reason the countries in eastern Africa hate China (assuming the poll is at all accurate or good, with good questions, accurate translations, and representative people filled out etc)? Don’t really know enough about the area and people. Left over colonial stuff and western propaganda(jeans and Marvel films…)? Chinese industry? Or maybe just why is there a more positive perception of USA and don’t really dislike China?

I think I found the original polls, and it says USA hates Russia more (have the most negative perception) and same with a lot of these other countries. Maybe they used a different question or survey to make this though? Questionnaire I am looking at doesn’t ask about perception of Israel for example so guessing different, but you would expect some more agreement in answers if it was a useful poll.

Even though i dont have an artistic bone in my entire body, i can appreciate art. I have negative feelings on private art like this that im too dumb to elucidate on.

Would you feel the same way if they displayed some local or contemporary artists original work(or commissions etc) instead of some “famous artist”? Having art in your home should be normalized(and everywhere), not really treated as some sacred thing only for museums or art houses(which also have their place). The whole culture and speculative market of art is probably pretty cringe and gross but it seems like a big part of the offense you feel is you buying into the the cringe speculative market, hype, price, and “sacredness” they created in the first place(“the people” probably would not put that value on those pieces). At least that is my art illiterate opinion… Also still eat the rich, just was commenting and “reading between the lines” on this part.

(edit: Also "Since fashion is art now and Chinese is in fashion, I could make a lot of money… Mao would be really nutty not to believe in it, it’d just be fashion but the same portrait you can buy in the poster store.” --Warhol.Then made a Mao painting/coloring of Mao portrait so we may be eating Warhol too. Also attributed to Warhol "Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”)

Do they think Muslims and Palestinians were not supporting black people?

It is probably doable, but I think you would be susceptible to burn-out (depending on your other job and general mental health too). Lots of phds areas in the US it is pretty common to have “duties”(teaching,TA,grading,tutoring), for a stipend and cover tuition, but in my experience that was generally less than 4 hrs a day. It will probably depend a lot on how quick and demanding the phd program is at your school. Maybe see if there is a way to get less hours or just do research while at work (if you think you can get away with it)? Waiting to see how the workload is doesn’t seem like a bad idea but I don’t know how inconvenient it would be for you to wait a few months. 6hrs of productive research sounds like a stretch anyways no matter what you are doing, but I don’t really know what your CS research “looks” like.

If you currently have this workload at a job plus doing a master’s I am not sure how much more work comparatively you would have compared to PhD(again this depends on a lot of specifics), and if that is comfortable you might do just fine(also generally research can be “easier” to do since it is more fun and you are motivated, hopefully, than basic class work in a masters etc. This also depends on specifics).

SF cleaning up their house before guests come over to stay… I would love to see chinese media(or documentary or something) going to SF and on one street seeing a bunch of luxery cars, fancy dressed people, expensive ass restaurants and literally next street over bunch of homeless struggling to survive and do some story… maybe even pull some “fake and dystopian city”(like America loves to do with China and DPRK) stuff before and after the “clean up”

Think you still will be using scihub. Unless I am missing something (or only correct inside China or need an account) it seems like “just another” aggregator (which is useful, don’t get me wrong) and doesn’t really make anything available that wasn’t already open access. Although being able to focus on some Chinese output, like thesis, is nice and things like that might get missed by other services (idk)

This reminds me of the famous “paper tiger” Strong-Mao interview I recently read(short read btw, like a page or two and honestly lots of parallels to the current Palestine/Israel+USA can be made).

If the “paper tiger” concept is useful and general, which I am not sure it is tbh, certainly dangling the threat of removing/lessening trans rights (of imperial core people) at the expense of many thousands of Palestinians lives is a type of “paper tiger” pointed inward(Mao’s case seems way more dire, one of the poorest most exploited countries in a war with US supporting one side and the fear of nuclear weapons is in the air… huh sounds a little like Palestine/Israel). Trans rights are not given by a couple of politicians, they are decided and fought for by the people as pretty much all rights have. People should be a little more brave, and not be put into a box of “we got to vote blue or else our rights” and maybe that isn’t the way to get trans rights and maybe we can get both trans rights and not genocide Palestinians at the same time…